No Sun - No Fun!

I am supposed to be in a Desert. Its supposed to be hot here - so hot that you should be drinking water to keep yourself from fainting. So hot that you should probably wear a cap and sunglasses all the time - just so you dont get sick due to the heat.

Its a farce - a huge farce this desert business. Well - atleast in these months. On odd days it does get hot and they throw up a sand storm to convince you about the existence of the desert but for most part the weather is pleasant here. Evenings - some have been chilly too.

But I was willing to live with pleasant weather - thinking nice bonus and what not. Plus I was always told that deserts have extreme weathers - hot by day, cold by night.

But today has been a shocker - its RAINING here! Raining! Desert Rain! The weather is actually gloomy and grey and dark at 10.30 in the morning - its DARK out there. So depressingly gloomy.

Apparently this is the weather they have in Cal - gleeful fellow trainees tell me - That explains a lot of things about bongs i suppose!

No Sun - No Fun! is all I have to say.

Against the Flow

This is the 3rd consecutive post on the same theme – the theme that asks for supporters and not fans. Every time I feel disappointed with the Indian team’s performance – the coverage on the news channels (alright – I get just Sahara Samay here, and its bad but I am sure its representative of the kind of coverage that goes on) and the kind of reactions expressed, just drive me to want to support the Indian team.

Cricket is a sport – a game. Its not a question of life and death. We as fans/supporters have every right to feel cheated/disappointed/angry with the team’s performance. We however have no right to abuse their personal space and their families. The police having to spend resources to protect the houses of our players is ridiculous – not for the action – but for the need arising to do it.

The players are not in the game to fulfill our fantasies and dreams. That we make them our heros and our messiahs is our own problem. It’s a career for them. Its what gives them their daily bread and luxuries. They can make money only over a limited timeframe – a shelf life shall we say? It is absolutely valid for them to earn money from other avenues like promotions and advertisements. To suggest that their advertisements are the cause of their poor performance is sheer stupidity. Does your work get affected by your dealing on the stock market or investing your money in banks? Or for that matter by your working for your local Rotary Club or heck even by your watching a movie? The board and the coach arrange for sufficient matches and training camps. As long as the players attend these – we have no right to cry foul.

Saying that the players should be banned from advertisements is completely unfair – as is suggesting that their performance should dictate the amount they get paid for advertisements. It’s a statement unfair not only to the players but also to the companies they represent in the ads. Let the market decide what they should pay whom. Also next time we read a report saying that a player’s sex life affects quality of performance on the sports field – will we go ahead and regulate his sex life too?

The players DO NOT work on tax-payers money. We do not pay him his salary. Just like we don’t demand that Amitabh Bacchan should only be paid if we like the movie, we have no right to demand that the player should only be paid if we like what he does on the ground.

Also while a loss in the first round is shameful and unexpected – it does not mean that the team is shit. TV channels seem thrilled to get opinions from viewers that literally use these words about them. It means that our performance was not good enough this time around. If we have doubts about the quality of their performance – we have the option to stop watching their games altogether – without wanting them stoned/burnt or worse killed.

“India Great” when we win a match and “India Worst” when we lose a match – and have these emotions swing wildly every match is not a done thing. Just like everyone else, the players too will appreciate stability of emotions. Either hate the team and do not follow them or support them and bear the low performances. Do not be like the creepy friend who only sticks to you when you have the money to spend on him. No one wants the wild swinging between Havans and prayers and then effigy burning and stoning.

The MPs and MLAs demanding a probe into the performance will be better off allowing the CBI to conduct the probes into them in a free and fair manner. And would you mind being not corrupt for a change please? And minding some slightly more important business about running the country?

Can the channels and people concentrate their efforts on tracking down real villans and criminals rather than attack the soft targets that the players are?
Finally what are we really pissed about – the fact that we crashed out of the WC or the fact that rich cricketers crashed out of the WC ?

I know I have repeated my points over and over again but then so do the newschannels.

The end of a dream.

WC 2003. We had a dream. Ponting had a bigger dream.
WC 2007. We had a dream. We woke up too soon.

Yesterday we crashed out of the world cup. We might still make it if Bermuda beat Bangla - but we rather not make it that way. We are out.

While I was quite ok with the Bangladesh loss - we were surprised and they did play quite well, the match against Lanka was a disaster. 255 was chaseable through the strategy of batting out 50. Did not happen and thus ended the World Cup for Team India. And in all probabilities the last WC match for Sachin, Ganguly and Dravid. The big 3 have bowed out of the cup with only one man having put up a fight. Sure Sachin got a ripper of a ball - but this was one match where he shouldnt have been ripped. Dada - I dont know what the hell he was thinking. Yuvraj ???

*Sigh* Its all ended in a heap. Now we will witness old unsuccesful fat players play the sharp critic, news channels will have a field day and the players will be generally made to believe they shouldnt have been born.

Dravid will probably lose captaincy. Greg will go. Maybe Uthappa will have signed a resignation letter with his shot. All this desirable? Maybe not. Any other option? Sadly sanity will not prevail.

Lets just remember that the players are humans too. They did not want to lose either. They are breadwinners for their families (sure the bread is made of gold but that shouldnt matter). They have a right to make millions from Advertisements. If they do not perform - the market forces will take care of that. We have no right to grudge them their earnings. They dont get paid taxpayers money. The MPs and MLAs do. Do we ransack their houses when they get caught for scams or dont work?

Dreams do get shattered every now and then. But its always the pursuit of the next dream that eggs us on.

Cheers
Pushkar
A Team India loyalist
Shaken, stirred but still a loyalist.

Wanted: Supporters not Fans

Cricket is a religion in India. The players are treated like Gods.Perhaps true - When we attack temples and mosques that represent the real Gods - why would the treatment be any different for the sporting Gods?

We are a country of hype - no one would ever deny that. We are a country of extremes - no one would deny that either. But it seems that we are a country of fanatics too. For who gave us the right to attack a cricketers house? Who gave us the right to pelt stones at the their families? Who told us that we owned the cricketers and we could treat them anywhich way we wanted?

Cricket may be a religion, it may be a passion, it may be a first love for many - but why do we insist on forgetting that above all else it is still a sport. Not a battle of life and death. A sport in which victory and loss are fickle guests for every team. A sport which is made exciting by its cliched but true glorious uncertainties and twists and turns. If everything went to plan and the stronger team were to win all the time - not only would the game be no fun - India wouldnt ever have been the World Champions in 1983.

The Indian team has plenty of fans - nay fanatics but seemingly just a handful of supporters. Its almost as if an army of Team India -Baiters (News Channels, Ex-Cricketers and Fanatics) just wait for a chance to start abusing the players and to push them off the pedestal they stand on. But hold on a minute - who put them on the pedestal? For the life of me, I cant remember a Sachin or a Rahul proclaiming that they were sporting Gods and should be worshipped as such? That their place was on a pedestal? If we put them on the pedestal - lets atleast respect their personal lifes just that little bit.

Criticism? Sure but let it involve a balanced view. Disappointment? Ofcourse! Frustration? That our right. Attacks? Hell no.

But amongst all the rambling - my expression of thoughts is not even a patch on Rudyard Kipling's classic - "And if you can face Triumph and Disaster - and treat those two imposters just the same - you will be a man my son!"

About time - we accepted the lows of Indian cricket with the highs.

Nostalgia.

This month of February has seen me have bouts of Nostalgia a lot of times. First it was that trip back to campus for Unmaad. 3 days back on campus - with a lot of people from the senior batch, a lot of people from my batch and ofcourse all the juniors. Its impossible not to be nostalgic - especially when u sit at H-Bar with two other fellow H-Mezzers and chat. We almost expected one of the others to suddenly pop out of their erstwhile rooms and it would all start again - the random conversations, the TAS ball cricket, the usual banter and poking-fun-at-others.
There were the L^2 parties - with the same familiar junta - the same faces - the same memories. The same chants, the same jokes - the familiarity and warmth of the campus we were so used to for 2 years.

Unmaad 2006 was one of the hugest things for me - Unmaad 2007 was yet another trip down that old memory lane. Standing there ahead of the barricades with Lucky Ali-Indian Ocean- Junoon playing, dancing with friends there and talking about how that time last year - it was Ian Anderson with Tull out there.

It was all great fun but I always knew I was going to return to campus in a week's time for a company ppt. It was in that visit when it finally struck - that would be my last visit to the campus as a "senior" with my juniors still on campus. The next visit (if and when) would be as an "alumnus". It doesnt need many reasons to start missing campus and the life there.

Then while in Delhi - with my batchmates, it was nostalgia time all over again, so much so that we all simultaneously missed L^2 when some popular L^2 song started playing in the background.

Many months back i had posted this. I guess almost a year out of campus, things still havent changed. I still miss all those things.

I guess its funny - while in the first year, we all long to see the end of the 4 terms and want things to hurry. By term 6 we are hoping that time would slow down and at the same time looking forward to making money. Post placements one hopes that "that" particular time would never have ended.

But to use the cliche - all good things come to an end and its only when they have ended that you really appreciate how good they really were.

An Irish saying "May the best times of your life become the worst times of your life". All I can say is that it will take some doing for the future moments to demote those moments but I hope it happens

Future Gazing

For all you know, Irfan Pathan might be recognised in the future as one of the best no.3 batsmen in the world, known for his propensity to pick up vital breakthroughs with his part time bowling.

Rollercoasters

Usually they come attached with a warning that they might be unsuitable for heart patients and the like. Indian Cricket however comes unattached with any such strings but whos really complaining? The pieces are slowly beggining to fall into place - ofcourse you never know when they might be rocked again - but unlike the last close loss versus the Windies, this time around India have bounced back strongly.

Often while solving a jigsaw puzzle, all it takes to finish it off is getting that one critical piece in place and the rest takes care of itself. For anyone following Indian Cricket - it wouldnt take long to realise that the most critical piece in this team is the captain himself Rahul Dravid. Over the last year he has batted at all positions from 1 to 7 with varying degrees of success. However the one place where he has had success and more importantly the team has had success has been the no.5 position. Dravid undoubtedly is the best repairman in the Indian team and hence the best guy to go to when we need an innings to be rebuilt - hence the best guy when wickets have fallen cheaply - say a 50/3, Dravid coming in and one would have to feel reassured.

Over the last couple of years Rahul has also developed into India's best finisher - push the ball into the gaps, run the ones and twos, hit the boundaries and generally either finish off a run chase or end the inning with a flourish. So say at a 200/3 with 13 odd overs to go, Dravid would be a safe guy to have there.

Imagine the guys batting at 1-4 - would you not feel secure if you knew that Dravid was there to watch your back? One cant help but feel that a Dravid at 5 would end up creating a peaceful scenario for all around.

The other pieces have mostly fallen into place - Dhoni has been a brilliant no.6 - he has brains along with the brawn and that makes him really good. Yuvraj coming back to form and fluency basically solves the question of who will bat at 4. Ganguly has come back to international cricket with a vengeance that only bodes well for us. And that brings me to the call to reinstate the old firm of Sachin and Saurav to the top of the order. Their century partnership at Rajkot proves that they still have the coordination and fluency to bat together

A backup of Karthick, Uthappa and Sehwag (who should be whipped and caned for his runout today) looks good.

Indian batting will in all probablities continue their round trip from excellence to selfdestruction but in excellence it looks pretty much looks as good as it gets. And by subscribing to the rollercoaster of Indian cricket, one has anyway foregone the risks of heart attacks - statutory warnings be damned.

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Also posted on Sportsnob

A tale of three teams

This is a tale of three teams. Australia, England and India. At first sight - the champions, the downtrodden and the middle ground?

A week back - Australia were invincible, England could do no right and India were back on the ascendancy. 11 February 2007, the stakes have changed. These three teams are all at their own crossroads - to ponder their future and take a path that will decide their fate at the World Cup in the West Indies.

Australia last lost a best of three finals in 1992-93. To lose to England today would be nothing short of a miracle. To have lost three consecutive matches to England is something Ricky Ponting wouldnt have thought of in his worst nightmare. But that non-existent nightmare has become a reality. Usually one would have expected Australia to look at the loss in the first final grimly, tighten their belt, summon all their brutal energies and crush England and crush them convincingly. After all the Aussies would want to punish England for making them play a third final. But England pulled one out of that hat and rode to a victory - a thumping one at that.

A victory that has brought both teams to unfamiliar territory. The victory possibly will bring England to face a pleasant fact - that their team is not really all that bad and perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea for them to really try hard for the World Cup. Its not the serious five day game but really after the 5-0 Ashes loss - lets look at this shorter game a little more seriously huh? They can treat this victory as a launching pad and go for it all. Or in typical English style - they could have several pints of warm beer - talk about the victory for ages and forget about winning any further matches.

Australia on the other hand seem to have taken Symond's loss pretty badly. For a side that has a bench strength good enough to beat most other first sides - its fairly surprising. To lose 3 matches on a trot to England is a shocker. Having failed to crush England after the first final - one wonders how Australia will take this defeat. What looked like an unneccessary 3 match series against New Zealand has suddenly become crucial. New Zealand can either bury Aussie confidence - or more likely you might find the Aussies shrugging off the final loss to England, chewing gum, gulping Fosters and resume regular business just as if nothing really happened.

The most intriguing side though has to be India. Its been a long journey for them. Great run - win 17 matches on a trot chasing and then that 4-1 loss in Windies and India were on a bad patch continuing up to the South African series where they lost 4-0. Coming back to the Indian pitches, they played strongly to win the series against the Windies. Until today. They exercised that card which they know best - To lose a match that was as good as won. The last time they lost a match that went this close was in West Indies when Dwayne Bravo bowled that slower one to Yuvraj Singh. The result was a string of losses after that. And that makes this close loss to Sri Lanka even more worrying. India is yet again on the crossroads. They could shrug it off and go on to win the next 2 matches and still be contenders in the World Cup or they could go on the path they know best - downhill.

A week back - Australia were invincible, India were on their way up and England were finding a way to dig deeper. Today Australia are bewildered, England ecstatic and India devastated. Whoever will want to question cricket being a funny game?

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You can also read this on Sportsnob here and a much watered down version on Sportingo here

Quick Comment: Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar has been the best batsman in the world. No questions asked. What made him the best was his ability to make the toughest and most dangerous of pitches seem placid while all around him struggled to come to terms with the pitch. The most fearful bowlers seemed like ordinary net bowlers. He was feared.

He still retains that capability . To play that brilliant knock when all others struggle. But what has displaced him from his position of the best in the world (apart from a raging Ponting ofcourse) is a new ability that seems to have crept into his game. He has also started to make placid pitches look like minefields. Some ordinary bowlers are given respect that they wouldnt get a few years back.

And there I think is where Sachin has become less of a threat. But to take him lightly - thats a fool's job to do. For even a Tendulkar at powers lower than his peak is more than a handful for any team in the world.

Good Riddance

It serves the Eden crowd perfectly that the match got washed out. In fact there should be no international matches at Eden. Let that crowd feel happy watching Bengal v/s XYZ team and cheer the Bengali players all their life.

Last time an international was held at Eden Gardens - India was playing South Africa. India were sans Ganguly and as a result the crowd decided that they were happier supporting South Africa. South African runs were cheered, those of Indians booed. Indian mistakes were cheered, their super shots or good balls were jeered. The South Africans had more support in Eden than they have ever had in South Africa.

For a crowd that cannot support its own team - there should be no joy of watching that team play. Next lets not wait for nature to dispense justice. Let there be no matches at Eden.

P.S. :- I havent even mentioned the earlier shameful acts by the Eden crowd - ofcourse none of that compares with this one.